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Formafantasma (Milan)

Always a crowd and critic favourite, Formafantasma celebrates pure water with its new project "Still".

By
Gabrielle Kennedy
/ 11-04-2014

Eindhoven designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin used only essential materials and simple clean lines for their new project Still. The water purifier, carafe and drinking glasses were designed for the Austrian company J&L Lobmeyr.

Crystal and copper are the only materials used and the crystal is engraved with, for instance, a microscopic view of bacteria found in rivers. “Lobmeyr makes very refined objects with perfect control of matter,” says Simone Farresin about the company that has supplied courts all over Europe for almost two hundred years.

“What are the true luxury goods of today?” writes Lobmeyr in an introduction to the series. “For us, it’s not glitter, gold or heavy cut crystal vases. People of today need carefully designed and well-crafted objects. Pure drinking water is a treasure and this drinking set – Still – reminds us to cherish and enjoy our world’s most important resource.”

“We like this statement,” says Farresin. The objects were designed with the idea in mind of turning the act of drinking water into a form of ritual. “Water is of course very important in life, and in many religions has a special meaning connected to purity. We couldn’t escape that connotation.” Little crosses in the design emphasize this religious connotation.

The Lobmeyr history is celebrated as well. The charcoal container is a customized version of the Candy Dish, designed by Oswald Haerdtl for the company in 1925, as is a copper spoon. The copper cups refer to the Alpha Drinking Set No. 267, designed by Hans Harald Rath.

The Still collection is currently showing as part of an exhibition curated by Rossana Orlandi at Bagatti Valsecchi, Via Gesù 5, 20121 Milano.